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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBig stakes and the end of an expansion
by Matthew Rossi 
Dec 28th 2011 at 1:00PM
I'm sorry, but you have to be 50 kinds of jaded to not enjoy this. One of the things I've really enjoyed about patch 4.3 and the Dragon Soul raid is how it unabashedly throws massive, crazy, world-ending doomsday events at you. Between fending off not one but two faceless ones from within bloated abominations, balking an ancient earth elemental giant at the base of Wyrmrest Temple, and defeating Ultraxion and then taking on Deathwing himself, the fights feel enormous. The stakes are huge, and while the supposed saviors of Azeroth spend a lot of time thinking really hard at a McGuffin, we step the heck up.
Whether you are hitting it via Raid Finder, attending your weekly 10-man hardcore raid, or participating as a member of a casual 25-man raid alliance (or anything in between), in terms of pure aesthetics, Dragon Soul is a very satisfying raid in terms of pure scope and sweep.
No better than this bitter end
To be honest, I sincerely hope Blizzard doesn't try to Sunwell this expansion. Cataclysm must go out on Deathwing's demise. He was the villain all expansion long, and we put him in the ground. There's no better end for this expansion than to see the Age of Mortals come rolling around and for us to be the mortals that make that happen. Après Neltharion, le guerre, if you'll permit me to horribly butcher the helpless French language for a moment.
The Hour of Twilight heroics and the Dragon Soul raid do exactly what they should do and provide us with the end of Deathwing's story and his attempt to remake the world to his own twisted desires. I've never run a set of 5-man instances that so perfectly dovetailed with the raid they were intended to complement, not even the ICC 5s. (Those were admittedly close, however.) Perhaps it's as simple as finally getting made into another race than a human in a CoT or getting to see the biggest event in the Warcraft setting's history up close, but I'm in love with these instances.
Out with a bang
This is a seven-year-old game. The fact that it can contain a fight like Madness of Deathwing, that a raid like Dragon Soul can be this big in terms of pure engagement, that in eight fights we get to save the bloody world and everyone in it is pretty dang awesome. This isn't If we don't stop Arthas, he'll eventually destroy us all; this is Stop Deathwing right now or the planet blows up -- stakes we haven't seen since Algalon. And it was a blast to do it, too.
This is fairly awesome. I can only hope Mists can take this energy and run with it. Whatever your feelings about Cataclysm (I had some serious issues with it at start), no one can deny it went out big.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)
raingod Dec 29th 2011 11:00AM
If that were indeed the case then DW would be spouting some lame quip ever 3.5 seconds. :/ Freddy stopped being scary after the first movie, degenerating into a punster. Jason on the other hand, killed without resorting to anything so cliched.
jonny_carr Dec 28th 2011 2:31PM
I'd honestly forgotten why I'd enjoyed this game to begin with, having quit some 8 months ago. This article reminded me.
See you in January Azeroth.
/salute
Gibs x
monotype Dec 28th 2011 2:29PM
I couldn't take Deathwing seriously, for the simple reason that he had no master plan besides torching the ever-loving stuffing out of everything in sight, and he was pretty bad at it. Madness can be a compelling character trait, but it has to be handled exceedingly carefully, and I don't know that Deathwing received that kind of treatment in Cata. If he was so committed to destruction, why didn't he just level Stormwind when he landed on it and blew the crap out of the nelf park? It made sense for Arthas to let us live, to allow us to ascend to the top of ICC and duke it out with him, insofar as it was consistent with his ulterior motives -- the breaking of heroes, and the raising of undead champions to fight at his side. Deathwing had no such motive. Deathwing was a caricature of a death god (you, sir, are neither Thanos nor Darkseid, so stop pretending that you are), a personality cult without the personality, a villain who existed to make things go boom, no more, no less. He was the WoW version of a Michael Bay blockbuster, with all the depth that entails.
Edge00 Dec 28th 2011 2:36PM
Dragon Soul was a great dungeon, having completed it on normal mode and dabbling in heroic modes (I've never been much of a heroic raider before) I feel like this expansion has all but come to an end for me. If there is no additional content before MoP I'd say that it is highly likely I will be taking a break from WoW.
The major reason why I didn't sign up for the year commitment is that I wasn't sure if there would be more content. I would hate to be paying for a game that I'm not even playing, especially when I have such an extensive back catalog to catch up on (Skyrim, Skyward Sword, LA Noire, Dead Space 2, Torchlight, Mass Effect, StarCraft 2 to name just a few). If they want to keep my $15 a month flowing I'm going to need MoP soon or another Raid.
Pyromelter Dec 28th 2011 2:48PM
Starcraft 2 is by far the best game on that list, with the caveat being I never played Skyrim.
Joakim Dec 29th 2011 7:48AM
Hey! Don't ignore Shepard, man!
The Shepard prevail. The Shepard prevail ...
;)
Melfina Dec 28th 2011 2:52PM
I respectfully disagree. Having done all of Dragon Soul in LFR, I don't feel epic or like a hero. I feel like I was used as a distraction while NPCs did the work. I'm hoping that when I do normal 10 man with my guild that it'll be more engaging and epic, but so far all I've got is the same bad taste Uldum left in my mouth. I am not a sidekick, darn it.
I was excited to kill Arthas, I was excited to kill Chogall and Nefarion. I would be excited to kill Rag if I'd actually managed to get to do so. I don't know why, but killing Deathwing feels empty.
jimportal Dec 28th 2011 2:58PM
The RP and Storyline is epic. Anyone who says otherwise is a bit silly. However the actual fight in terms of game play left me longing for LK's icy fortress or Ulduar. Size isn't everything.
Don't get me wrong... it's not a dud or anything. It just doesn't top previous encounters. I'm not going to doomsay about the end of Blizzard or say that they're slipping in their old age. There's nothing to stop Pandaria from being better than the rest. It's natural for there to be ups and downs.
Pam Dec 28th 2011 3:12PM
I think the graphics alone in places like Well of Eternity prove that MoP is going to, if anything, be a beautiful place to run around!
amnbrownie Dec 28th 2011 3:03PM
I feel mixed about this patch/expasion. I appreciate your optimism, and it does cause me to reflect on my own feelings and inspires some optimism in myself where I had previously been bitter.
The concepts were great. We finished Deathwing, and saved the world. The 3 new instances were a lot of fun, transmog is fun...but it was kind of depressing to have seen all the raid fights in a span of a few weeks. Now we're working on heroic mode (which has been prolonged a bit due to not raiding during the holidays) but I feel like I really, really have to pace myself or I'm going to be bored of this content fast. It seems like my group is going to get the majority of the HM down and people in my guild will burn out before we finish the last two.
In some respects, I'm glad Blizzard has designed it so I don't feel like I have to log on every day. But I wouldn't complain if we had a few more raid bosses, and some interesting side things to do when we just want to log on and play and do something out of the ordinary and relaxing. I guess that's what MoP promises...we shall see if it delivers.
Pam Dec 28th 2011 3:10PM
I have mixed feelings. The first time I downed Deathwing was in LFR, and it didn't feel epic. When the first guild downed Deathwing on our server, it didn't feel epic. Our 25's haven't made it that far yet...sure there were wipes on LFR, and 10 man.....
What did feel epic was the one time on our 10 man when we wiped because of Cataclysm. The whole screen going eerily black....*shivvers*. Only then did I finally get the 'feel' of the expansion. It wasn't a boss deaggroing and running back in place....just black nothingness.....dead......everything....gone......
However, 4.3 in general, I have been having a blast with. Sure it took me a month to figure out how to heal again on my druids....but the fact that I can work on my alts, and not feel like my main in suffering? Awesome. The fact that I can get my 7 level 85's decently prepped for MoP....awesome! 3 new 5 mans with story I can emotionally get into....awesome. Transmog....oh ya.....Darkmoon Faire......mhm!
I do tire of slime and tentacle trash.....
Jaq Dec 28th 2011 3:11PM
I will say that 4.3-and certain aspects of 4.2, namely the Molten Front and most of the fights in Firelands-pretty much saved Cataclysm for me. Up until then, it'd been a total disaster. Every aspect of the end game content was so wrong headed that I sometimes wonder just what Blizzard was thinking. 4.3 features three amazingly fun 5 mans that don't require the stupid amounts of time to clear them that the launch heroics and the Zuls at 4.1's launch did, which tie into a raid of epic scale and scope. We're not crawling through a single series of hallways until we hit a big room with a boss in it, we're going all over the world, battling our way across the spine of a dragon the size of a skyscraper, and then doing nothing less that preventing the destruction of the world. How epic is that?
And for those critical of the design of Spine and Madness, here's a thought:
Throughout Cata, commenters on the forums and sites such as this were adamant that we couldn't simply defeat Deathwing via your standard raid boss fight. It had to be something different. We had to have the Aspects helping us. Surely we weren't going to be fighting the greatest and most powerful of dragons like we did a lowly boss in Naxxramas?
Blizzard listens to us, and gives us a plot where everything we do-from working our way through the five mans to get the Dragon Soul to Wyrmrest, to defending the Aspects as they power it, to weakening Deathwing to the point the Dragon Soul can wound him, to helping the Aspects fight his final maddened form off-remember, on each platform Deathwing is assaulting one of the Aspects, not us-was part of making Deathwing a boss that we didn't fight like other bosses, with the aid of the Aspects, like so many people suggested.
And people QQ over it, saying it doesn't feel like we did anything, when that's the fight we wanted.
I was just as excited when I killed Deathwing in LFR as I was when I killed Arthas in 10 man ICC. ICC is just a bunch of random bosses thrown in your way. Dragon Soul is a story, built around weakening and defeating Deathwing. I know which raid I like better.
Pam Dec 28th 2011 3:20PM
I hear ya. I do feel sorry for the Devs, they never catch a break....thank you for reminding us how much work they do put in to try to keep us happy.
Jere Hunter Dec 28th 2011 3:42PM
Hear hear
Kolyarut Dec 28th 2011 3:37PM
ICC is, to an extent, a bunch of random bosses, I can't argue that. But they are thematically emblematic of the whole expansion. As a character fighting through that, you're finishing the last remnants of the Cult of the Damned, jetpacking through the air fighting the Horde / Alliance, fighting the ultimate representations of plague and cold, destroying the final remaining undead nerubians, and removing the Lich King's ability to raise more undead.
Marrowgar, Rotface and Festergut are all fairly generic, and all could have stood to be trimmed (though Marrowgar still works well as an intro). But with all the others, even if most were invented for ICC, I still get what they're meant to be.
My character, having survived rivers of liquid plague, cold so unbearable it can kill you with seconds of exposure, and personally come face to face with the Lich King and killed him, feels like she's overcome the impossible.
In Dragon Soul, she's stood on a dragon who's proven to be comically bad at his job and spent an hour and a half killing tentacles. All I imagine she's thinking by the end of that is "my arms hurt, and I am so goddamn sick of fighting tentacles."
Kreek Dec 28th 2011 4:59PM
Hear Hear indeed Jaq! I have to shake my head at some of the people with rose-colored glasses of nostalgia who say how personal the fight to take down Illidan was. ILLIDAN! The guy that showed up all of 2 times during the entire BC expansion before you finally fought him. As mentioned earlier, it wasn't WoW that hyped up Illidan or Arthas, it was Warcraft III and The Frozen Throne. We took those single player stories with us into WoW's raids, which makes us care about the heroes and villains all the more.
So what's the breakdown of the player base reaction to WoW endbosses?
BC - Illidan was hardly seen or heard and wasn't even the end boss, we need more face time with the villain!
WotLK - Arthas is all over the place and yells empty threats at you, he's a joke of a saturday morning cartoon villain! We need to use the villain more sparingly!
Cata - Deathwing wasn't a personal villain, just a giant engine of destruction, we need to be more involved with the villain!
Pre MoP - No announced big bad, instead we're dealing with the very personal values of Horde vs. Alliance? Worst end game ever!
It's completely impossible to satisfy what the players want because they all want different things. Or they think they know what they want and end up unsatisfied when they get it. Sure, Blizzard's execution of these end bosses and their stories could be better, but that's asking for near perfection, which seems unreasonable when the developers are trying something new with every expansion.
Illidan was a recluse because he was a paranoid maniac who was seeking to shore up defenses against Kil'Jaeden's retribution.
Arthas was all over the place because he was goading you to walk the same path he did, to prove that his own downfall was inevitable and to then raise you as his ultimate champion.
Deathwing was destruction incarnate because all of his previous schemes of dominance had failed, all the pain and rage he was left with meant that only the destruction of the planet itself would satisfy him.
The mystery final boss of MoP is supposed to come out of an expansion long reflection on the dynamics of the Horde and Alliance, the very backbone of WoW itself.
I can understand what Blizzard is trying to do with each storyline, and while I may wish things were done in different ways, I do appreciate all of the final results - mainly because each successive endgame builds on the previous one.
Kreek Dec 28th 2011 5:12PM
Oh, and in response to Kolyarut, I don't see how you can review the encounters in ICC that were "thematically emblematic" of the entire expansion and then dismiss all of Dragon Soul as "fighting tentacles."
Morchuk is an enraged elemental - one of the major themes of the expansion.
The faceless generals are direct calls to the Old Gods, the driving force behind the Twilight's Hammer and Deathwing's forces.
Hagara and friends are the twisted shaman and mages of the Hammer, just like Blackhorn and his buds are the militant arm.
Ultraxion is the ultimate Twilight Dragon - He IS the Hour of Twilight.
Finally you get 2 fights against Deathwing, one where you bring down the massive dragon that's been scorching Azeroth for over a year, and the final where you prevent a second Cataclysm right where this whole mess started - at the heart of the Maelstrom.
It's a very good call-back to all of the antagonistic forces of Cataclysm, especially when you look at it as part of the progression from Black Wing Descent -> Throne of the Four Winds -> Bastion of Twilight -> Firelands -> Dragon Soul. That's much better than WotLK where you had Eye of Eternity, Obsidium Sanctum, and Ulduar as "side" raids from the main storyline. Hell, a lot of players thought Crusader's Colosseum was a waste even though that's explicitly set-up as a prelude to the assault on ICC.
Talsenar Dec 28th 2011 6:06PM
I really wish people would stop talking about the WoW fanbase like we're meant to be one giant hive mind.
'In TBC everyone said they wanted X instead of Y, but in Wrath they gave you X and you said you wanted Y instead of X, make up your mind'
10 million players, 10 million opinions. If 1000's of people say one thing and then 1000's of people say the opposite, that does not mean they're being argumentative, or have changed their minds, or just want to moan, the most likely thing is we're talking about two small groups of the millions of people who play this game.
Quidamtyra Dec 28th 2011 3:11PM
took me 5 madness of deathwing's to realize he explodes into a not-so-magnificent ball of pink confetti when you kill him. DS is terribly fun, but I think the big bad's death, which was supposed to be the greatest feat of all time was kinda lacking =(
Daniel Maccabee Dec 28th 2011 3:48PM
I don't think Blizzard effectively captured the "epic" feeling of defeating Deathwing. In fact, I don't feel like we actually fought Deathwing proper, just bits and pieces of him. We fight amalgamations and tentacles but never Deathwing himself. Yes, his head does slump down for us to beat on, but come on.
Deathwing can one-shot anyone in Uldum when he randomly flies over and spews forth his fire, and he can destroy whole sections of Stormwind and Orgrimmar, but he doesn't directly attack us at all during his raid encounter aside from shooting an elementium bolt.
Then we have Thrall who stands around and *usually* gives us the ability to float from platform to platform (usually because he seems to sometimes drop raid members to their deaths). In Hour of Twilight he gives us a nice damage buff but during The Encounter all he can do is float us around.